Carmen Linares: “We have taken flamenco out of the jer bajerío” | Culture
It came from Linares (Jaén), that is, not from the capital flamenco triangle, the one that remains, according to her, between Cádiz, Jerez and Seville, with permission from Granada and the rest of Andalusia. She was not gypsy and, above, had clear eyes. What has been I think this girl ?, I noticed that some said: Triumph like this in flamenco? But he had an accomplice father who, contrary to what used to be recommended to young women with a fixation of becoming artists in the sixties, encouraged her in her dream by accompanying her with the guitar. "God has given you that voice for something ...," he said.
And so it has been planted Carmen Linares with 68 years in that plethora of his art within the same generation that consecrated Enrique Morente or Shrimp in singing as one of the reference figures. Capital artists along with those she contributed to something fundamental: “Remove flamenco from bajerío, place it on top, ”he says. Now he celebrates his 40 years as a soloist. And still ... 40 alone? "No way! It's over 50! I started very young, what happens is that I've been accompanying for years. Is not the same".
Those beginnings count as a prelude to a career that has become a benchmark for those who follow it. Not only in its gender. If not, ask him to Casal Light, that accompanies her today Sunday in the presentation of her anniversary at the Teatro de la Zarzuela or others like Sílvia Pérez Cruz, He will do it at one of the stops on his tour.
Carmen Linares accidentally went through all the difficulties with the efforts of those who do things driven by that intangible that they call naturalness. “I did not ask myself then, but I have thought about it now that I have had to make a move and, my mother, there I know that we have realized…”, he says. For example, being a woman and mother of three children never slowed down or slowed her mood. How he managed to keep everything going. How he overcame a cancer he did not want to talk about in his day, but today: "The children were young, my mother was alive and we had lost my father and my sister for the same cause ...".
She and her husband, Miguel Espín, another fundamental and constant support, swallowed it quietly. They beat him together until he felt fully recovered performing Flemish Mass in San Esteban, the parish of Fuenlabrada. “I realized because I felt very good singing even with the bandage on that unique atmosphere of the churches, which makes me very good vibes.” For those battles won, he has proposed to sing to Luz Casal on Sunday Thanks to life. "That song, in a very delicate moment of our trajectories, gave us both strength," he says.
As they have been given by their children, who despite the nightlife implied by flamenco never gave up waking up to give them breakfast: “I woke up like a clock. Then I fired them from the window when they marched to school and put me back in bed. ” That's how she and Miguel were raising all three. But before, Carmen Linares had already worked on the stage, always with two suitcases: “In one, the clothes, and in the other was the Iberofon turntable that touched my mother in a raffle and that I carried everywhere to to learn".
With that, the safe-conduct of his talent and the artist card issued to him in 1971 - "I still have it out there" - was making its way. For this he had to pass an exam. “And that same day, I got a job with Mario de la Vega, father of Laura del Sol, who was on the jury. When he proposed it, I realized: 'Go, I must have approved! ”
Then came the tours around the world and an exquisite discography: "I have always recorded carefully, when I had something different to offer, with an end, because of quality not quantity." Like the last one, dedicated to Miguel Hernández, another of the poets like Juan Ramón Jiménez or Federico García Lorca to whom he has contributed his singing. With lyrics and music, the case of the latter, who turned his songs into something that has marked time.
Between sensitivity, intuition, instinct and strength was Carmen Linares jumping obstacles. “The other day he told me Morente star. His father, my dear Enrique, and I had a strength that young people don't notice now. But it is not so, I see them much stronger to them, with all the competition that they must endure and that prevents them from getting on stage what they should. Because an artist makes himself there and learns to smack. ”
With the exposed voice and without the technique that assists the lyric singers, for example: “That's why Alfredo Kraus or Plácido Domingo are admired with us, because of the way we place the voice without being broken. You have to be very tempted with it. As Pepe the Matrona told me: 'Be careful, this is a muscle! ”
A volatile instrument that needs its flexibility and its pampering: “When I started, the cracked, hoarse voices were appreciated; Now they get sweet and velvety. It does not matter. An artist must seek authenticity, do what he feels and express how he feels. Do not follow any more pattern than that or anyone else who dictates. ”
